WALKER — Alcohol, bad tempers and an inattentive driver at a stop light ended in a road-rage incident that involved a racial slur and a beer bottle chucked at someone's head, Kent County sheriff's deputies said.

Two drivers were arrested Thursday after getting into a 7:40 p.m. shouting match as they traveled west on Four Mile Road from West River Drive.

Police allege one of the drivers, a 52-year-old Comstock Park man, was drunk while the other driver, a 22-year-old Muskegon man, may have been drinking and had a beer bottle in his Chevy Blazer.

The odd series of events all started after the older driver, in a Ford Explorer, was stopped behind the Blazer when a traffic light turned green. The Blazer failed to move immediately, prompting the Explorer driver to honk his horn and pull up next to the Blazer as both vehicles began moving down the road.

"They exchanged some name-calling. At one point, there was a racial slur supposedly yelled from one vehicle to the other," Kent County sheriff's Lt. Kevin Kelley said.

The older man, who is white, allegedly shouted the a racial slur, prompting the younger driver, who is black, to toss a beer bottle and hit the older man in the head. The older man was not seriously injured.

The younger driver had his grandmother in the vehicle with him at the time.

"They were both swearing and cussing at each other," Kelley said.

The suspects' names were not released, pending their arraignments.

The two vehicles never touched each other, but the shouting match continued as the SUVs traveled along Four Mile Road to Alpine Avenue, then south on Alpine to a gas station at Three Mile Road, where the two drivers got out and argued. There was not a physical fight.

Walker police arrived soon after, finding the older man to be intoxicated and the younger man to have outstanding arrest warrants out of Muskegon.

Kelley believes the incident was "100 percent alcohol-related" and likely would not have happened if the Explorer driver had simply honked his horn and moved on.

"He had beer courage and apparently was upset," Kelley said.

At the gas station, as police interviewed both men, "they both pointed the finger at one another," Kelley said.

The 52-year-old was charged with drunken driving. The 22-year-old man faces charges of driving with a suspended license, possession of open intoxicants and felonious assault.